Disclaimer: While Nutrilite is paying the expenses for this trip I am under no obligation to write about the trip or their products. All opinions are my own.
Today was travel day for the Nutrilite Sport Blogger Event which means there were no scheduled activities and we were all on our own to do as we pleased.
I had a 9:00am flight from Minneapolis that was totally uneventful, even considering I was carrying on my CPAP machine. At the security checkpoint I was pulled aside by TSA as expected but they cleared me through very quickly without any grief.
At LAX met our driver along with Steve and his wife, who doesn’t use her name on her blog so I’ll call her Pharmie like she does there. Coincidentally we graduated from the same University and she’s a pharmacist (hence “Pharmie”) like my wife. That’s about where the similarities ended, I’m afraid. They are young, fit triatheletes and I’m old, fat desk jockey. Bleh! But just talking to them about their races got me really focused on need for fitness, so that is good.
After about a 30 minute drive we arrived at Hotel AVIA in Long Beach. Beautiful boutique hotel that only just opened in August. I got checked in quickly, rummaged through a little gift bag that the Nutrilite team left for me, donned my Nutrilite hat and headed out for lunch and a long walk.
As I was leaving the hotel I was flagged down by Lindsay and Andy from Nutrilite and we chatted for a little while. In another coincidence they actually flew in from Grand Rapids, Michigan and I’m going to be flying out there this Monday for business. Small world!
I walked down to the harbor and looked for a place to have a little lunch. There were tons of chains like Bubba Gump Shrimp, Chilis, Bostons, Famous Daves and PF Changs but wanted something I could not get at home so I settled on Gladstone’s, which I guess is a small chain in California but I’ve never been to one before so chain or not it was a good candidate. I had a couple of fish tacos and an iced tea.
After lunch I spent a couple of hours walking all around Long Beach, following a bike path that went up into downtown, then followed that along to the beach and back through the Harbor. It was a great day for a walk. I wore shorts and a t-shirt and the weather was such that probably everyone that was in a similar attire was a tourist and all of the locals were in pants and a windbreaker, but for this Minnesota boy the weather was great.
Here’s the Queen Mary, permanently docked at Long Beach since 1967:
At one point on my walk I found myself on Ocean Blvd. Kudos to you if you know without Googling why I tried to see if I could find a 461 Ocean Blvd., but alas I could not.
I really liked this area by the lighthouse where they were restoring some natural dunes and grasses:
Here’s a cute fellow. Pelican I’m guessing. Wish I had used my AV setting correctly to get the background blurry though:
I like this more modern view of downtime Long Beach:
I suppose I should show a picture of the actual beach:
Now it’s past 7:00pm and I’m back in the hotel room. Have started my fast in preparation for the bloodwork tomorrow morning.
Looking forward to a fun and educational day tomorrow at the Nutrilite Health Institute Center for Optimal Health.
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